The Only Way is Up for Anthony Yarde

It has been announced that Anthony Yarde will face opponent Sergey Kovalev in Russia on the 24th August this year. The British boxer has made quite an impact since he turned professional just four years ago in 2015. He has had opponents thrown at him, defeating one after the other. What is quite incredible about Anthony Yarde’s professional career is that not only has he defeated every opponent he has faced but out of his 18 fights, 17 have been through KO, with one fight being a unanimous decision – not many can say that! Yarde has dominated his classification for a long time and it doesn’t look like he is slowing down any time soon, at the young age of 27, he is just getting started.

Comparing Yarde to his latest opponent, Kovalev, they both seem at very different stages in their careers. Yarde who has found his feet and is sprinting for glory, whereas Kovalev, who is well and truly in the middle of his career race has much more experience. Kovalev has fought a total of 37 fights, losing only 4 (although 3 of them have come in the last 6 fights) with 28 KOs and 5 victories by decision. Although the waters of Kovalev’s career are muddier than Yarde’s, when you look at his early career, they look very similar.

There is a lot of dispute surrounding the upcoming fight between these two on who will be victorious, but for now, it is in favour of Kovalev. You can keep track of the Kovalev v Yarde odds with Paddy Power. There have also been some concerns surrounding drug usage, not just within boxing – with American basketball player Donell Cooper Jr. supplying a fraudulent urine sample from his pregnant girlfriend and boxer Dillian Whyte testing positive for illegal drug use – neither boxer can be too careful. That being said Yarde has raised concerns about his opponent Kovalev, as the boxer was being ‘difficult’ about supplying all the relevant documentation and he had to be forced to take a drugs test.

Drug testing aside, there have been a lot of other recent issues with Kovalev, being thrown off a flight in Florida for ‘kissing and throwing money’ at a female passenger as well as being charged for assault on a female in California in June of last year. These incidents away from the sport could well prove to go against him come fight night, which can only be good for Yarde. For Yarde, he has no personal matters to attend to, the boxer is focused on his training and has been preparing for this fight for a while – he only has one job.

This will be the first time that Yarde has fought outside of Britain since he went to Texas to face Rayford Johnson in 2016. This shows that Yarde is ready to step up another level, fighting away from his home support, it will be interesting to see if he can keep his nerve. If he does, we could see Yarde’s career start to take him around the globe and ultimately, he could be the ‘next big thing’ in boxing. Although the odds aren’t in his favour, we will certainly be highly anticipating his next in a long list of victories come August 24th.